Long thread/10
The instant that bubble pops, the US economy gets a 35% amputation. It's no surprise that, under Trump, the FTC and DoJ have brought the Biden administration's antitrust enforcement against Big Tech to a screeching halt:
https://www.citizen.org/article/deleting-enforcement-trump-big-tech-billion-report/
Nothing would be worse for the AI bubble than antitrust and securities-law enforcement.
10/
Long thread/11
Companies that cook their balance sheets and suck up hundreds of billions in investment capital cannot function in a world with an orderly market system overseen by publicly accountable referees charged with keeping everyday people from having their life's savings stolen.
11/
Long thread/9
Plenty of people got dynastically rich off of the fake numbers that propped up the pre-2008 housing bubble and the pre-2001 dotcom bubble. Those same people - and their ideological heirs - are now all-in on AI. It's impossible to overstate how structurally important AI is to the US economy. AI bubble companies now account for the value of *35% of the US stock market*:
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-gui/
9/
Long thread/10
The instant that bubble pops, the US economy gets a 35% amputation. It's no surprise that, under Trump, the FTC and DoJ have brought the Biden administration's antitrust enforcement against Big Tech to a screeching halt:
https://www.citizen.org/article/deleting-enforcement-trump-big-tech-billion-report/
Nothing would be worse for the AI bubble than antitrust and securities-law enforcement.
10/
Long thread/8
All those rural, Christmas-voting turkeys are getting it in the neck:
https://kdwalmsley.substack.com/p/tariffs-wiping-out-american-farmers
Trump's answer to this is to fire the government statisticians and replace them with work-for-hire fiction hacks who'll publish whatever numbers he tells them to:
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2025-08-13-cooking-inflation-jobs-numbers-trump-bls/
You'd think that this would worry the finance sector, but fake numbers are actually good for finance, provided you're on the right side of them.
8/
Long thread/9
Plenty of people got dynastically rich off of the fake numbers that propped up the pre-2008 housing bubble and the pre-2001 dotcom bubble. Those same people - and their ideological heirs - are now all-in on AI. It's impossible to overstate how structurally important AI is to the US economy. AI bubble companies now account for the value of *35% of the US stock market*:
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-gui/
9/
Long thread/7
As Hamilton Nolan writes:
Crypto coins... are pure speculative baubles, endowed with value only to the extent that you can convince another person to pay you more for them than you paid. They are a claim on nothing. They are the grandest embodiment of Greater Fool Theory ever invented by mankind.
https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/scams-and-bribery-are-becoming-the
Trump's tariffs are blowing up the economy and wiping out the agricultural sector.
7/
Long thread/8
All those rural, Christmas-voting turkeys are getting it in the neck:
https://kdwalmsley.substack.com/p/tariffs-wiping-out-american-farmers
Trump's answer to this is to fire the government statisticians and replace them with work-for-hire fiction hacks who'll publish whatever numbers he tells them to:
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2025-08-13-cooking-inflation-jobs-numbers-trump-bls/
You'd think that this would worry the finance sector, but fake numbers are actually good for finance, provided you're on the right side of them.
8/
Long thread/6
Don't invest in a rideshare company, buy options to invest in a rideshare company:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn
Crypto is as meta as it gets, so no wonder crypto bros are all-in on Trump, and no wonder Trump is all-in on crypto.
6/
Long thread/7
As Hamilton Nolan writes:
Crypto coins... are pure speculative baubles, endowed with value only to the extent that you can convince another person to pay you more for them than you paid. They are a claim on nothing. They are the grandest embodiment of Greater Fool Theory ever invented by mankind.
https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/scams-and-bribery-are-becoming-the
Trump's tariffs are blowing up the economy and wiping out the agricultural sector.
7/
Long thread/5
The finance sector is the critical faction in Maga, because the financialized ideal is to accumulate wealth and power without exposure to any real-world risks. As Doug Rushkoff writes in Survival of the Richest, the finance move is to "go meta" - don't drive a taxi, buy a medallion and rent it to a taxi driver. Don't buy a medallion, start a rideshare company. Don't start a rideshare company, invest in a rideshare company.
5/
Long thread/6
Don't invest in a rideshare company, buy options to invest in a rideshare company:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn
Crypto is as meta as it gets, so no wonder crypto bros are all-in on Trump, and no wonder Trump is all-in on crypto.
6/
Long thread/4
Financiers who back Trump know that they can afford to transport their daughters, wives, mistresses and the housekeepers, babysitters and teenagers they impregnate across state lines (or national borders) to get an abortion should the need arise. Their participation in Maga was a bet that after victory was attained, the base could be made to settle for performative cruelty against people other than them:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/06/how-the-sausage-gets-made/#governing-is-harder
4/
Long thread/5
The finance sector is the critical faction in Maga, because the financialized ideal is to accumulate wealth and power without exposure to any real-world risks. As Doug Rushkoff writes in Survival of the Richest, the finance move is to "go meta" - don't drive a taxi, buy a medallion and rent it to a taxi driver. Don't buy a medallion, start a rideshare company. Don't start a rideshare company, invest in a rideshare company.
5/
Long thread/3
The Maga base wants a bunch of stuff that the Maga elites would never tolerate, but that's OK, because the Maga elites are pretty sure they will never have to suffer under the laws they pass for others. Peter Theil is happy to support a political movement whose dominant factions would like to put him - and every other gay man - in a concentration camp, because he's pretty sure that only applies to the poor gays, not the billionaire gays.
3/
Long thread/4
Financiers who back Trump know that they can afford to transport their daughters, wives, mistresses and the housekeepers, babysitters and teenagers they impregnate across state lines (or national borders) to get an abortion should the need arise. Their participation in Maga was a bet that after victory was attained, the base could be made to settle for performative cruelty against people other than them:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/06/how-the-sausage-gets-made/#governing-is-harder
4/
Long thread/2
This is perfect Magaism, as captured by Wilhoit's Law:
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288
Maga is a coalition of turkeys voting for Christmas, and ax-sharpening farmers planning to make a meal out of them.
2/
Long thread/3
The Maga base wants a bunch of stuff that the Maga elites would never tolerate, but that's OK, because the Maga elites are pretty sure they will never have to suffer under the laws they pass for others. Peter Theil is happy to support a political movement whose dominant factions would like to put him - and every other gay man - in a concentration camp, because he's pretty sure that only applies to the poor gays, not the billionaire gays.
3/
It's not just that Texas DA Gocha Ramirez charged a woman with murder for having an abortion (something he wasn't allowed to do, even in Texas); it's that Ramirez paid for his mistress's own abortion, after he impregnated her while having an affair with her and her sister:
https://archive.is/20250812192203/https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/abortion-murder-charge-district-attorney-20812966.php
-
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/13/then-they-came-for-me/#boss-politics
1/
Long thread/2
This is perfect Magaism, as captured by Wilhoit's Law:
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288
Maga is a coalition of turkeys voting for Christmas, and ax-sharpening farmers planning to make a meal out of them.
2/
Cory Doctorow